Looking for a fish suggestion to help deal with algae

[lostmojo]

I have some hair algae going a bit crazy, siphoning during a water change helps but it’s not helping enough. I would like to get a fish or two to help reduce the algae build up and work well with my plans.

I have a 41g cube tank with a few corals and more arriving this week. I have cleaner crews and two emerald crabs, I’m looking at getting a pithos crab, but I have not found one for sale in a while. I do not have any fish at the moment but I plan to have 3-4 total in the tank. I would like to have a fire fish and maybe a dottyback are my two main plans for fish, but I think now a black combtooth or starry Benny might be a good addition to the tank.

My biggest concern is just the fish getting along, so any suggestions that would help but also do well with a fire fish and dottybacks?

 

[Ben.QLD2]

Juvenile rabbitfish, older and larger ones get lazy and prefer pellets etc.

 

[Red_Beard]

Stuff like that in a 40g tank is going to be very difficult to manage with fish alone. I would do urchins and turbo snails for hair algae, coupled with manual removal. 2 urchins and 3 turbos should have you righted.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Not many larger algae eating fish can fit into a 40 gallon, it would be cruel to put a tang or rabbitfish into a 40.

Honestly speaking, if all you are doing is siphoning during water changes, I would say this is just the minimal effort, it takes more elbow grease than that to control and eradicate algae.

I'm guessing that your tank is very new, its very normal for new tanks to be invaded by algae, the first year of a reef tank is learning to fight algae. If no corals, then lights don't need to be on. If lights are on, then need to control and export the nutrients.

Honestly more info will really help, What are the nitrate and phosphate levels? How long are the lights on? How much are you feeding? How often doing water changes? Full tank pics will help a lot too.

 

[Doctorgori]

Stuff like that in a 40g tank is going to be very difficult to manage with fish alone. I would do urchins and turbo snails for hair algae, coupled with manual removal. 2 urchins and 3 turbos should have you righted.

Nothing but good advice here… only possible add is
Some of the blennies do a decent job and maybe a bristletooth tang “might” fit if you can evade the tang police,

 

[Magic031707]

Hydrogen peroxide and mb7 worked wonders for me if you really don't want no fish. iME, turbo snails didn't do much with it when it was that thick. I had to knock it down some and then they went to work.